Who's been through Europe?
03-28-2010, 02:57 AM
#61
I'm glad I saw this thread as I retired last year and have had it in the back of my head to do a trip like this within two years of retirement. I want to see several countries with no rigid timeframe, staying at B&Bs when available and come home when I'm ready. You've given me some great info; thanks.
Oh and cjernigan you probably don't realize how fortunate you are to be able to travel like this. I'm over twice your age and have never been overseas; yet. I hope you're having a great trip.
Oh and cjernigan you probably don't realize how fortunate you are to be able to travel like this. I'm over twice your age and have never been overseas; yet. I hope you're having a great trip.
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03-28-2010, 09:02 AM
#62
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EDIT: Nevermind, just realized this was from March of LAST YEAR adn was brought back from the dead by ^^^ I was wondering how I missed it.
Last edited by KPLAFIN; 03-28-2010 at 11:52 AM.
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03-28-2010, 11:39 AM
#63
I'm glad I saw this thread as I retired last year and have had it in the back of my head to do a trip like this within two years of retirement. I want to see several countries with no rigid timeframe, staying at B&Bs when available and come home when I'm ready. You've given me some great info; thanks.
Oh and cjernigan you probably don't realize how fortunate you are to be able to travel like this. I'm over twice your age and have never been overseas; yet. I hope you're having a great trip.
Oh and cjernigan you probably don't realize how fortunate you are to be able to travel like this. I'm over twice your age and have never been overseas; yet. I hope you're having a great trip.
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03-29-2010, 12:40 AM
#64
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I did end up doing this trip. I was there for a month. Flew into Frankfurt, US Army buddy of mine in Baumholder met me and we spent the night in Frankfurt.
Went to Cologne via the Autobahn and toured the city. He had to be back at work the next day so we drove back to Baumholder and stopped at the Nurburgring on the way. It was closed when we got there but we found a weird hole in the fence and got out on track for about 2 minutes before the pace car found us and lead us out the long way. The two guys in the car came up to the window and we explained that we were american and just wanted to come see the track. Showed them where we got on and they were nice about just leading us off.
We made it back to baumholder and spent a day there so he could work that one day before the weekend.
Then we went to Heidelberg to meet up with his other Army buddy that's stationed there. Partied our tails off with all the college kids there down on bar lane. Talk about a beautiful historical city.
I parted ways with my Army friends and took the train to Stuttgart for a day. Hit up the porsche, mercedes, and two art museums throughout the two days I was there.
Hopped the train to Munich and met up with a German friend of mine I met in the racing industry. He lives just outside munich about 10 minutes by train so it was perfect for me to stay with him.
I loved Munich and ended up spending like 6 days there doing everything I could. I would wander back to the hostel I stayed at my first night there around happy hour to see if I could meet anyone worth trying to run around town with. I had met a girl from Munich on the train from Stuttgart that spoke excellent English due to living in California for two years as a student. I hit up the BMW museum and Dachau and the Hoffbrau house of course. Went to a lot of other small out of the way places.
I spent a day in the english gardens, a large city park with a creek running through it. In the entrance to the park there was a large city storm drain that locals would surf in. They had sunk a large log attached to the bridge with cables that produced a huge wake that could be surfed as long as you tacked back and forth.
I left Munich via train for Prague in the Czech Republic. It was a pretty long train ride to get there and I ended up getting there really late. I met an american coming off the train that was just as lost as I was. We found a map and I had a hostel reservation and address so we went on our way to find a bed. I ended up running around Prague for 2.5 days with him. They have an awesome beer garden in Prague that looks over the city.
We left Prague headed for Berlin and stopped in Dresden for a couple hours just to check it out and realized we didn't have enough time to get out of the expensive tourist district.
We made it to Berlin and the Wombat Hostel there. I really enjoyed everything about Berlin. The whole city feels edgy yet suprisingly safe. There is a large wall where graffiti isn't necessarily legal but the cops seem to just let people run wild with it. We grabbed some beer, watched some artists work their magic on the wall, and drank until the sun went down.
I'm realizing that I ended up doing so much on my trip I don't remember every single thing I did while I was there. I did take a ton of pictures to document every single thing I did though.
From Berlin I went to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I ended up staying with Oscar from the forum for a few nights. Worked on his braineack megasquirt, got it installed and running after he had some trouble with different hardware/software issues. Oscar took me to the opening night of the beach clubs near Hoffddorp for an awesome party scene. I spent most my time in Amsterdam wandering around into random shops and food venues like I did in every city. I visited the Heineken museum and learned hot to properly pour and drink a heineken. I found a used folding chair someone was throwing out and decided to carry it around until I could find beer and a good place to chill by the water with some good non-tourist people watching. When I was wandering through a flea market I noticed there were two graffiti spray paint booths selling paint. I asked them where the most legit place in Amsterdam was to go spray if I was interested and they hooked me up with a location. I bought some paint and went on my way to accomplish that task.
I left Amsterdam for Brugge Belgium and couldn't have made a better decision to do so. The beer, chocolate, and waffles there were alone worth the trip. I rented a bike for the day and rode all the way to the beach for an awesome experience. The North Sea is definitely the coldest water I have ever swam in. I made some good friends in the hostel and ended up meeting up with them in Paris after Brugge.
I went straight from Brugge to Paris and ended up in a shitty hostel in a inconvenient part of town. I left that place to stay at St Christophers hostel which was much nicer. It was brand new, very modern, and very very clean. Definitely worth the extra 3 euro or whatever it was a night compared to the other place. I had a blast in Paris visiting Montmarte, the Louvre, Van Gogh museum, and everything else I ended up doing there. Every night I was there we would go buy the cheapest red wine we could find and go find some place to drink. The first night we spent like 3 hours in the rain at the Eiffel Tower watching it flash all over every hour.
I left Paris and went back to Frankfurt with hopes to rent a car from Sixt and run the ring that day. My time schedule got all messed up due to train reservations that were supposedly required but it turned out all the trains were not full and it was cheaper and faster to just get on the train and pay the no reservation fine. Lessons like that I will not forget. So i missed out on my chance to go run the ring in a rental car.
Went to Cologne via the Autobahn and toured the city. He had to be back at work the next day so we drove back to Baumholder and stopped at the Nurburgring on the way. It was closed when we got there but we found a weird hole in the fence and got out on track for about 2 minutes before the pace car found us and lead us out the long way. The two guys in the car came up to the window and we explained that we were american and just wanted to come see the track. Showed them where we got on and they were nice about just leading us off.
We made it back to baumholder and spent a day there so he could work that one day before the weekend.
Then we went to Heidelberg to meet up with his other Army buddy that's stationed there. Partied our tails off with all the college kids there down on bar lane. Talk about a beautiful historical city.
I parted ways with my Army friends and took the train to Stuttgart for a day. Hit up the porsche, mercedes, and two art museums throughout the two days I was there.
Hopped the train to Munich and met up with a German friend of mine I met in the racing industry. He lives just outside munich about 10 minutes by train so it was perfect for me to stay with him.
I loved Munich and ended up spending like 6 days there doing everything I could. I would wander back to the hostel I stayed at my first night there around happy hour to see if I could meet anyone worth trying to run around town with. I had met a girl from Munich on the train from Stuttgart that spoke excellent English due to living in California for two years as a student. I hit up the BMW museum and Dachau and the Hoffbrau house of course. Went to a lot of other small out of the way places.
I spent a day in the english gardens, a large city park with a creek running through it. In the entrance to the park there was a large city storm drain that locals would surf in. They had sunk a large log attached to the bridge with cables that produced a huge wake that could be surfed as long as you tacked back and forth.
I left Munich via train for Prague in the Czech Republic. It was a pretty long train ride to get there and I ended up getting there really late. I met an american coming off the train that was just as lost as I was. We found a map and I had a hostel reservation and address so we went on our way to find a bed. I ended up running around Prague for 2.5 days with him. They have an awesome beer garden in Prague that looks over the city.
We left Prague headed for Berlin and stopped in Dresden for a couple hours just to check it out and realized we didn't have enough time to get out of the expensive tourist district.
We made it to Berlin and the Wombat Hostel there. I really enjoyed everything about Berlin. The whole city feels edgy yet suprisingly safe. There is a large wall where graffiti isn't necessarily legal but the cops seem to just let people run wild with it. We grabbed some beer, watched some artists work their magic on the wall, and drank until the sun went down.
I'm realizing that I ended up doing so much on my trip I don't remember every single thing I did while I was there. I did take a ton of pictures to document every single thing I did though.
From Berlin I went to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I ended up staying with Oscar from the forum for a few nights. Worked on his braineack megasquirt, got it installed and running after he had some trouble with different hardware/software issues. Oscar took me to the opening night of the beach clubs near Hoffddorp for an awesome party scene. I spent most my time in Amsterdam wandering around into random shops and food venues like I did in every city. I visited the Heineken museum and learned hot to properly pour and drink a heineken. I found a used folding chair someone was throwing out and decided to carry it around until I could find beer and a good place to chill by the water with some good non-tourist people watching. When I was wandering through a flea market I noticed there were two graffiti spray paint booths selling paint. I asked them where the most legit place in Amsterdam was to go spray if I was interested and they hooked me up with a location. I bought some paint and went on my way to accomplish that task.
I left Amsterdam for Brugge Belgium and couldn't have made a better decision to do so. The beer, chocolate, and waffles there were alone worth the trip. I rented a bike for the day and rode all the way to the beach for an awesome experience. The North Sea is definitely the coldest water I have ever swam in. I made some good friends in the hostel and ended up meeting up with them in Paris after Brugge.
I went straight from Brugge to Paris and ended up in a shitty hostel in a inconvenient part of town. I left that place to stay at St Christophers hostel which was much nicer. It was brand new, very modern, and very very clean. Definitely worth the extra 3 euro or whatever it was a night compared to the other place. I had a blast in Paris visiting Montmarte, the Louvre, Van Gogh museum, and everything else I ended up doing there. Every night I was there we would go buy the cheapest red wine we could find and go find some place to drink. The first night we spent like 3 hours in the rain at the Eiffel Tower watching it flash all over every hour.
I left Paris and went back to Frankfurt with hopes to rent a car from Sixt and run the ring that day. My time schedule got all messed up due to train reservations that were supposedly required but it turned out all the trains were not full and it was cheaper and faster to just get on the train and pay the no reservation fine. Lessons like that I will not forget. So i missed out on my chance to go run the ring in a rental car.
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02-19-2015, 12:42 AM
#66
I'm in a similar boat, but with a much shorter vacation time (11 days). I honestly have no preferences other than what you guys recommend. I'll be going with the wife.
I was hoping to get some feedback and recommendations. We were tentatively thinking of flying into Prague to Munich to Geneva to Paris to Frankfurt to Prague.
Like I said, this is totally up in the air.
*Update* It looks like I have a lot more reading to do.
I was hoping to get some feedback and recommendations. We were tentatively thinking of flying into Prague to Munich to Geneva to Paris to Frankfurt to Prague.
Like I said, this is totally up in the air.
*Update* It looks like I have a lot more reading to do.
Last edited by kenzo42; 02-19-2015 at 03:55 AM.
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02-19-2015, 07:41 AM
#67
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Of that list, Frankfurt is often the cheapest to fly into and out of, but Aeroflot has been offering some sales lately to other cities. Prague has decreased in cost significantly in the past few years as competition into that airport has increased, so it may still be a safe bet.
EDIT: Aeroflot is under $900 RT to PRG from LAX with an 8 hour stopover in Sheremetyevo, Russia each way. That might be interesting.
EDIT: Aeroflot is under $900 RT to PRG from LAX with an 8 hour stopover in Sheremetyevo, Russia each way. That might be interesting.
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02-19-2015, 08:19 AM
#68
Kenzo, what do you want in your travel experience? Do you want to be in as many physical places as possible, or do you want to experience a culture and city?
Rushing around to do a lot leaves you with lots of memories of traveling between places...and not actually holding onto the day to day life in a new locale.
When are you going?
I loved living in Munich, Prague is gorgeous. If you sit tight, and decrease the number of stops, you can accomplish quite a lot.
Say, go to Munich, tour around for a day or two. Visit the beer halls, try to go during Starkbierfest. Then take a day and take a train 2 hours to Füssen to see Schloss Neuschwanstein (cinderellas castle), then go back to Munich. Next day, take a train to about an hour and half to Garmisch-Partenkirchen to take the cog train up the Zugspitze (highest peak in Germany on the foot of the alps). Book a tour of the BMW manufacturing plant ant BMW Welt, it's about 5 or 10 euro if I recall. Then with your remaining days, take a train and spend time in Prague (5 hours or so away) and repeat the sight seeing.
You'd take away a lot more (imho) than jumping and flying and getting delayed here and there in different cities. This is what I learned after living abroad for some time. But it's also personal preference.
Rushing around to do a lot leaves you with lots of memories of traveling between places...and not actually holding onto the day to day life in a new locale.
When are you going?
I loved living in Munich, Prague is gorgeous. If you sit tight, and decrease the number of stops, you can accomplish quite a lot.
Say, go to Munich, tour around for a day or two. Visit the beer halls, try to go during Starkbierfest. Then take a day and take a train 2 hours to Füssen to see Schloss Neuschwanstein (cinderellas castle), then go back to Munich. Next day, take a train to about an hour and half to Garmisch-Partenkirchen to take the cog train up the Zugspitze (highest peak in Germany on the foot of the alps). Book a tour of the BMW manufacturing plant ant BMW Welt, it's about 5 or 10 euro if I recall. Then with your remaining days, take a train and spend time in Prague (5 hours or so away) and repeat the sight seeing.
You'd take away a lot more (imho) than jumping and flying and getting delayed here and there in different cities. This is what I learned after living abroad for some time. But it's also personal preference.
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02-19-2015, 09:31 AM
#69
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Rushing around to do a lot leaves you with lots of memories of traveling between places...and not actually holding onto the day to day life in a new locale.
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02-19-2015, 10:32 AM
#70
The thing is, everything is new, you will likely never be bored from staying in one place too long. There are always museums and local events to check out.
(Munich)
Surfer wave is also nice if you walk around the Englischer Garten. People actually surf on a free standing wave on a small river, it's said to be quite challenging. Up till a couple years ago, this was completely illegal so they would do it at night or surf and run.
Deutsches Museum is great if you're into technological history.
Olympia park is a great walk right off the U2/U3. You'll love public transport in the city.
(Munich)
Surfer wave is also nice if you walk around the Englischer Garten. People actually surf on a free standing wave on a small river, it's said to be quite challenging. Up till a couple years ago, this was completely illegal so they would do it at night or surf and run.
Deutsches Museum is great if you're into technological history.
Olympia park is a great walk right off the U2/U3. You'll love public transport in the city.
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